Yvonne Ridley – In the Hands of Taliban A Tale #2

I thought if I stop and turn around

they'll say, oh my goodness she's coming back

and then they would shoot me.

Afghanistan's Taliban regime says it will put the

British journalist Yvonne Ridley on trial for entering

the country illegally.

Worryingly the Taliban have hinted they might claim

she was a spy for western special forces.

The moment I was arrested I was terrified

because I had fallen for all of the

western propaganda that these were brutal evil men

who hated women.

So I really didn't think that I was

going to see the sunset that night.

I just thought this is the end for

me.

Um so I was quite frozen with with

fear and I was taken to the intelligence

headquarters in Jalalabad.

Uh they because of their limited knowledge, I

mean their knowledge of me was as limited

as my knowledge of them and in cultural

terms and they thought I was an American

spy because they didn't recognize my accent.

They thought it was uh that it's from

the north of England um on the near

the Scottish border and uh and I tried

to tell them we don't all speak like

the queen.

They, when they were talking to me they

kept looking away.

They looked at the ceiling, they looked at

the floor, they looked out of the window,

they looked anywhere but at me and I

just thought they can't look me in the

eye because they know that they're going to

kill me and they're feeling too guilty.

When of course I learned later that they

were shooting me in the eye respect by

not staring at me.

So it was um it was it was

a real clash of cultures.

They didn't understand me.

I didn't understand them.

I was extremely fearful and so once I

became accustomed to the idea they're going to

kill me, the biggest fear then was uh

will they torture me?

Will they * me?

Will they abuse me?

And so that was my next biggest fear

so I just thought if I'm the prisoner

from * they'll just take me outside and

shoot me and then that'll be the finish.

It'll be over and I'll go from being

prisoner to being dead and at least I'll

miss out all the middle bits and so

that was my strategy.

They kept responding to me when I was

rude, aggressive, I threw things at them, I

spat at them.

They kept saying why are you behaving like

this?

You were our guest.

We want you to be happy and I'm

thinking why are they acting like this?

They're supposed to be evil and brutal.

This is obviously a game that they're playing

you know like the cat and the mouse.

They're going to let me think that they're

really nice and then at the last minute

the claws will come out.

So throughout the the whole experience I don't

think we came to one understanding with each

other and but in truth they never laid

a finger on me.

They never touched me.

They didn't respond in an aggressive manner.

If they were upset with me they just

got up and walked out.

You know we don't want to talk to

you and so it was not what I

expected.

I'm sure I wasn't what they expected.

At the Sunday Express her employers insist she's

a bona fide journalist who only entered Afghanistan

to report on the humanitarian situation.

And after 11 days I was released on

humanitarian grounds even after the war had started

and I don't know who was happier when

I walked back into Pakistan whether they were

glad to see the back of me or

I was happier just to get away from

them.

But it was only on the point of

my release as I was walking towards the

Pakistan journalists that I started to think about

my time in captivity and the journalists were

shouting how did the Taliban treat you and

I'm walking towards my colleagues from the Pakistan

media and I thought you know these guys

treated me with courtesy and respect and then

I thought gosh how did I treat them

and I thought I nearly stopped and I

nearly turned around to go back to say

look I'm really sorry I was so rude

but I thought if I stop and turn

around they'll say oh my goodness she's coming

back and then they would shoot me.

So I went and I told the Pakistan

media I was treated with courtesy and respect

which was true.